Instead of a single LA class shared by all factions, what if each empire had their own version of the Light trooper? Having empire specificity might make the class a more appealing choice over the uniquitous Heavy Assaults and Medics. Unique tools and abilities would add to what you can do with the class. Just brainstorming here: TR: Skirmisher Unique grenade: Incendiary grenade. Creates fiery pain field + DoT on an area. Unique ability: Panther leap. Powered leg armor allows a silent, fast panther leap of several meters. Has cooldown, similar to MAX charge. Works in any direction (wherever you're looking) and can be combined with jets for creative maneuvers. VS: Revenant Unique grenade: Plasma grenade. Creates glowing pain field + DoT in a volume of air, greater initial damage but shorter duration compared to Incendiary. Unique tool: Teleportation device. Requires placing a sound-emitting teleportation beacon, allows teleporting from e.g. 25 meters away. Limited quantity in inventory, used up upon teleportation. Teleportation itself is done by charging the personal teleportation field (nanites ;D) which takes a few seconds to complete, can be halted. NC: Raptor Unique grenade: Frag Grenade MK II. Larger blast radius compared to standard frag grenades, but cannot be thrown as far or as quickly. Causes bleeding damage which bypasses shields, on a radius slightly larger than the actual impact radius, except against MAXes. Unique tool: Wingsuit. While not useful on the ground, allows for greater speed and maneuverability in the air. Activation requires a few seconds of continuous jetpack use; jetpack cannot be used when active. And of course, all of these classes could ADS while using the jetpack
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm No. Many after me will explain why, I won't, I'm tired. Balance seems bad here, VS gets teh worst ability, NC gets the worst grenade. TR gets meh everything. Doesn't really seem like something the devs would do, either.
Then stop posting and go to sleep. You forgot to read. The part you want to critique is the paragraph above that.
The soldiers in of themselves already have faction specific weapons that make them different from their other faction brothers. The only reason the max's are different is due to them being infantry/vehicle hybrid. It costs resources to spawn a max. It cost nothing to spawn any of the other infantry units. Making the classes unique outside of the actual weapons they use would make balancing even more of a nightmare then it already is. Light infantry is fine as is.
Balancing isn't a nightmare. In fact, balancing according to SOE is extremely simple: give them the exact same abilities and copy paste weapon stats with slight modifications that hardly matter. Adding ES abilities to a class wouldn't make the class any more difficult to balance than any other empire specific thing in the game, be it ES AV weapons, ES MAX weapons, ES MBT's etc. Light assault is fine, you say? I see. No. Light assault is a one trick pony. It needs more tools and abilities. Would you prefer SOE to cancel the upcoming Light Assault class update altogether, because the class is fine as it is?
A one trick pony? Being able to reach hundreds (thousands?) of spots that other classes have no hope of getting to unless drop podding or using some method of air transportation is hardly what I would call a one trick pony. Being able to survive air combat without ejection seats is hardly a one trick pony. Being able to rain C4 on a group of enemies or a vehicle while staying out of sight above them is hardly a single trick. Light assaults are among the most versatile roles in the game. He can hold his own in direct combat like the heavy assault. He can (with some practice) take out vehicles. He can flank enemies in ways impossible for any other class. The light assault gets his job done. Does not need to be made faction specific.
You've listed several ways to employ a single ability - good job. Now I know we're talking about the same class! Let's move on, shall we? Being able to flank and C4 is not a "versatile role". It is probably the most one-sided role of all the classes. Are you new to this game? HA have these Overshield abilities that make them very survivable in direct confrontation. Light assaults lack this ability and have poorer weaponry. They do not hold their own in direct combat "like the Heavy assault". Yes, I know. I play the LA class a lot, I know what they do. Hence me creating this thread. My problem isn't with whether LA is qualified for the job. It's with the job description itself. You didn't answer my question: Would you prefer SOE to cancel the upcoming Light Assault class update altogether, because the class is fine as it is?
If a circus performer uses one prop such as a trapeze to perform multiple things does that mean they are just doing the same trick over again. Of course not. Just because light assault uses the same tool does not mean every single action he takes while using it is all the same. Multiple tasks that use the same tool. That is versatility at its finest. It is a versatile role if no one else can do it. He is the jack of all trades. His tops is flanking and ambushing which no other class can do as well as him. He is a secondary in both vehicle destruction and infantry combat. That gives him three roles. Heavy assault is anti vehicle anti infantry (two roles). I nfiltrator is a primary anti infiltrator with a secondary in flanking and ambushing (two roles). Medic primarily heals/revives with a side of combat (two roles) Engineer is primary repair + anti vehicle OR primary repair anti infantry OR lesser effective hybrid of both. (two and a half roles) See the pattern? Only the light assault truly has three roles he can fill. This makes him the most versatile. Poor choice of words. Still fairly accurate but I can see why it would confuse you. The light assault can hold his own in direct combat MUCH like the heavy assault. Which means that they are only some what worse the heavy assault but better then the other classes. Sorry if that confused you. If you do not like the job description perhaps it is time you applied for a different one? IF you do not like what light assault does then why play it? Changing the class to suite your own personal preferences is not the answer.
Personally i think these ideas get a 10/10 on coolness factor. A wing suit alone would be ******* sick. That being said, the previous posters are right in saying this would introduce a lot of balance issues. Imagine the tears of the f̶a̶r̶m̶e̶r̶s̶ tankers when wing suit LA's soar in a C4 them before they can react. And Vanu LA's being able to defend two points at once will almost certainly be *****ed about. Also, I could be wrong but I think there are engine limitations that make it so the jump ability is tricky to include. I remember reading about it in a sprint thread but again, i could e mistaken. Awesome ideas! But theyre a little impractical
We're not debating whether the jetpack is a versatile ability. We're debating whether the Light Assault has a versatile role in the game. All it has is mobility, nothing else. That is the definition of unique, not versatile. I'm not even gonna waste my time... this is absolutely ridiculous. Let's just move on to critique more deserving of a reply. I'm not confused. None of what you say here is being contested, you're posting this in the wrong thread. Where have I said I dislike playing Light Assault? Please just go and crap on someone else's Suggestion thread or, even better, no one else's thread.
Thanks for the comments but none of what you're saying is really that relevant. You're concentrating on the wrong part of my post, as I already said to TriumpantJelly. The abilities and classes I proposed are just me BRAINSTORMING. They are not my actual suggestion, they're just an example of the sort of thing you might have IF you had empire specific LA classes. Get it? Now, what do you think about the actual suggestion:
I don't see how having ES anything is a good idea. SOE is already failing miserably at balancing current ES stuff, what makes you think it's not gonna fail at ES LAs? Just look at the MAXes - one ability is fun, but rare seen, another one is useless and never seen, and the third one is extremely situational. Or at tanks - they have completely different roles and playstyles, and this breeds constant conflict whenever MBT vs MBT combat occurs. Or even at ES sniper rifles and rocket launchers and heavy weapons and tank secondaries. Completely unbalanced. So however cool this abilities are - none of them new, though - if the primary point of the thread is EMPIRE SPECIFIC LA, I don't see how that helps anybody. TL;DR - new abilities = good. ES LA = bad.
You may have noticed from my two previous replies to other posters that the abilities I proposed are mere examples. They are not my actual suggestion. My actual suggestion is to differentiate Light Assaults in some way in order to make them and their respective factions more interesting. You could still do all the things you can currently do with Light Assaults, but you'd have the option to try an Empire specific playstyle with the class. Balancing other ES abilities properly is a completely separate issue. Just because some ES abilities, weapons or vehicles are (according to you) "completely unbalanced" (imbalanced), doesn't have any bearing on whether there should be new ES abilities or not. I like the idea of empires being different more than just cosmetically, and I want to promote that further.
You'd make a great politician. You deflected all the questions you couldn't answer, albeit not like a politician would. I agree a lot with @TheTickles . LA is probably to most versatile class in the game. Its C4 is probably the lowest risk (in terms on manpower and resources) way to take out tanks. He may lose toe to toe with a HA, but a good LA will never get in that situation, always popping up where you least expect them. The rest of the classes excluding MAX, LA holds the advantage with his jetpack. What he forgot to mention was the LA squad lead strat. How many times have you been sniped by and infiltrator in an impossible location because he spawned on a beacon and LA placed? How about been completley outflanked by a squad because a LA flanked where no one else could? LA is already a very popular class, at least on Waterson. It seems every time I assault a base. Their are at least 5 LA jetpacking over the walls. Since this is a suggestion thread, you probably should've braced yourself for feedback.
What questions? He asked me two questions at the end: "If you do not like the job description perhaps it is time you applied for a different one? IF you do not like what light assault does then why play it?". These aren't even valid questions; the first one is nonsensical, the second one assumes I don't like playing LA which is untrue. You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but neither the versatility nor the popularity of the class is the issue here. Yes, I'd like LA to have more things to do with different abilities and tools instead of just using one ability 24/7. Yes, I'd like more people to recognize LA as a useful class for objective play. But that's not the point, the point is having Light Assault classes that are Empire specific, with the goal to make not only the class but also the empires themselves more interesting and unique. What do you mean should've? You say that as if I didn't. Not really - there isn't nearly enough of it.
The threads reflects the overall mood of the community. The devs know this. That's why most weapons have clones in the other factions.
I like half of this idea.... I don't really agree on the different type of grenades, but I do think that there needs to be more empire specific differences to the abilities of each individual class in the game. Its bloody boring going over to the NC side sometimes and having the exact same type of LA ability with no real difference to the jetpacks they use.
